[question] How can configure a feature to start after the devcontainers is created?

[eddumelendez]

The feature I have in mind depends on a secret which is provided when Codespaces is initialized. I have tried using entrypoint, postStartCommand and postAttachCommand without success. I can see the agent is downloaded and can be initialized manually once Codespaces starts but what I'm looking for is to make it start automatically.

[joshspicer]

In the docker-in-docker Feature, we write a script to /usr/local/share in the Feature's install.sh script, and then execute it as the entrypoint (https://github.com/devcontainers/features/blob/main/src/docker-in-docker/devcontainer-feature.json#L49). Would that work?

[eddumelendez]

I tried like that but without success... probably because I didn't specify any remoteEnv for the token?

[joshspicer]

Ah sorry I missed the 'secret' portion of this. Version 0.32.0+ of the dev container CLI will respect lifecycle hooks in Features.

Over the next day or so, we'll be rolling out this new version of the CLI in codespace. Once it's available (you can see from a codespace creation log the version of @devcontainers/cli), you should be able to use postStartCommand, which will have access to the codespace's user secrets.

I put together a demo here (ignore the entrypoint portions, those were me experimenting):

https://github.com/codspace/codespace_secrets_with_features/blob/5d1acc38262b6b3eea0e330b99e934ab1e62ee71/.devcontainer/features/aaa/devcontainer-feature.json#L6

Are you able to refactor your Feature in such a way that you can "start" it in the postStartCommand, when secrets are available to you?

[eddumelendez]

thanks! Looking forward to it :)

[eddumelendez]

Hi @joshspicer is this already available?

[eddumelendez]

I moved it to postStartCommand but no success. I see the token set and the binary downloaded but can not keep the process running. This is my feature https://github.com/eddumelendez/test-devcontainer/blob/main/src/tcc/devcontainer-feature.json